Improvement of the hybrid moment method-physical optics method through a novel evaluation of the physical optics operator

This paper presents an alternative procedure for the evaluation of the phys ical optics (PO) contribution into a hybrid moment method-physical optics ( MM-PO) code. The proposed formulation includes a linear interpolation of th e phase over large triangular subdomains for the PO regions, where the radi ated field can be analytically determined. This allows a drastic reduction of the computational cost, while maintaining or even improving the degree o f accuracy. In this way, the scope of application of the MM-PO hybrid code is enhanced to larger problems in terms of wavelength. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.